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Gemeente Utrecht

De Gemeente Utrecht werkt voor de Utrechters voor een Gezond Stedelijk Leven voor Iedereen samen met Europa voor een: - gezonde en veilige leefomgeving - vrijheid en gelijkheid - economische welvaart en banen - onderwijs en talentontwikkeling - groene energie en circulaire economie - mobiliteit - ruimtelijke ontwikkeling en wonen - cultuur en evenementen Belangrijk is dat iedereen die in Utrecht woont, werkt, studeert, leeft, dit op prettige en gezonde wijze kan doen. Een Gezond Stedelijk Leven voor alle Utrechters.

Lobbying Activity

Response to Commission Communication – "Renovation wave" initiative for the building sector

8 Jun 2020

The renovation wave initiative for the building sector has the opportunity to strengthen a healthy urban living for all citizens in the European Union. The City of Utrecht supports this ambition, as cities play an active role in stimulating and coordinating citizens and the needed stakeholders to climate neutral choices and concrete actions. Most important is the role of the EU for enabling a coherent vertical and horizontal integration of achievable and affordable policies where all citizens benefit from. This integrated approach needs to be take into account at local, national and European level, so concrete actions can be realized in an efficient and fair way. Therefor policy silo's in governmental departments and DG's, opposing regulation that form barriers to the needed results and inflexible financing, need to be opened to achieve concrete solutions. In order to realize such an achievable, affordable and fair wave of renovation on all levels for a healthy urban future for all Europeans, please find our messages: - Support the local objectives and the district-level renovation approaches. - Address the barriers to renovation for all type of buildings and tenures, including social housing. - Support renovation of public housing and vulnerable groups, to avoid negative impacts on low income or energy poor households and make the European energy transition just and fair, also taking into account the gender dimension. - Participation of residents can ensure that the cost of renovation is balanced by the energy saving and does not become a burden for residents. - Deploy appropriate financing for the decarbonisation of the building stock. - Establish a European Renovation Fund managed at EU level with fast-tracked project approval processes. The EU should also provide direct subsidies for energy renovation and create opportunities for low-interest loans, and ease access to EIB financing for social and affordable housing providers. - Support the integration of (smart) energy managements systems in deep energy retrofits, which can enable higher energy savings and reduce emissions from historical buildings where fabric improvements are limited. Cities have successfully developed demonstration projects through H2020 for smart cities as we do in Utrecht with the IRIS project where bidirectional charging, energy efficiency and social housing is combined, but financial support is needed to replicate. - Ensure that member states are implementing supportive regulatory regimes to scale up building renovation and support local authorities. - Support the development of local/regional coordination services for building retrofit. The Renovation Wave should support participatory approaches where cities and residents have an active role in the design and implementation of programs. The full feedback of Eurocities: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12376-Commission-Communication-Renovation-wave-initiative-for-the-building-sector/F523830
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